Diaspora remembers football and cultural icon Allan ‘Skill’ Cole

Jamaican footballer Allan Cole, regarded as a legend by those familiar with his flair on and off the ball, was a trusted confidant and road manager of Reggae King Robert Nesta Marley.

‘Skill,’ as he was affectionately called by friends, had two Jamaican loves, namely music and football. On the soccer field, Cole dazzled everyone with his flair and phenomenal talent, earning recognition as one of the finest strikers ever to represent the island. As his friend, Cole assisted Marley in navigating the rocky roads in the music industry.

“Allan ‘Skill’ Cole was Bob’s mentor, idol, and confidant,” journalist and reggae historian Stan Smith told Caribbean National Weekly.

“Bob was drawn to the younger Skill Cole because of his international fame as a footballer and his physical discipline as an athlete. In music, the discipline and success Allan exercised in managing the Wailers’ powerful, conflicting, and competing talents and creative personalities were impressive. His keen ear and awareness made them Rastafarian brothers,” Smith opined.

Louis Grant, Executive VP of NYC-based Irie Jam Radio, shared his earliest memories of the legendary ‘Skill’ Cole.

“He came to the Spanish Town Prison Oval with the Twelve Tribes of Israel team to play against the St. Catherine-based Black Lion FC (my neighbourhood team from Brunswick Ave). This was before I even began high school. That was the only time I saw Bob Marley in person as a child, and also the only time I saw Skill play live. Even then, they were already bona fide ‘national treasures’ in my impressionable mind’s eyes,” Grant shared.

“I had the privilege of seeing Skill more frequently through the years and even more so found myself in his presence far more times than that pre-teen kid could have ever imagined back then in the late ’70s. Fast forward to October last year, at a symposium in honor of Peter Tosh at the University of the West Indies, where Skill was a presenter, I had the good fortune to tag along with some friends and accompany Mr. Cole to that edifying presentation. It became even more undeniably clear to me just how deeply respected ‘Brother Dan The Master Maestro’ was in both football and music circles,” Grant added.

“Skill Cole helped elevate the sport of football locally and internationally, and his role as Bob Marley’s manager placed him at the heart of a global cultural revolution that fused music, sport, and identity… The Reggae Boyz & Girlz were probably gifted that moniker in part due to the life, teachings, and friendship between Skill and Bob… Who knows?” Grant shared.

Cole and Marley’s friendship began in the 1960s, when Cole was a young football star and Marley was building his music career as a conscious reggae singer. Both carried the hopes of Jamaica — Cole being the football genius, while Marley with his guitar.

“Bob and I shared a philosophy of resilience,” Cole once said. “We pushed each other, and we carried Jamaica everywhere we went.”

For Marley, football was an escape, while for Cole it was a way to keep his friend grounded. Their relationship blossomed at the dawn of the 1970s, when Jamaica was caught in the crosswinds of the treacherous Cold War. The then U.S. administration in Washington never embraced Michael Manley’s socialist ideology. It was during this period that Cole took on the pivotal role as Marley’s manager, helping to guide him through the politically charged era. Marley’s life was not without peril. This was on display in the wake of the 1976 assassination attempt on Marley’s life at his 56 Hope Road home in Kingston. Through it all, Cole was close at hand.

Smith shared, “In music, the discipline and success Allan exercised in managing the Wailers’ powerful, conflicting, and competing talents and creative personalities was impressive. Allan’s keen ear and awareness made them Rastafarian brothers.”

In fact, when Marley recorded Exodus and Kaya in exile, Cole provided companionship and stability, reminding the singer of home. And when Marley returned to Jamaica to perform at the historic 1978 One Love Peace Concert at the National Stadium in Kingston that united political rivals Michael Manley and Edward Seaga onstage, Cole was there by his side.

“I’m the only man he said he couldn’t pay back,” Cole said in an interview in Jamaica. Their bond was built not on contracts, but on loyalty. That loyalty also gave Cole an insight into Marley’s private life.

Cole reportedly was present for Marley’s marriage to Rita Anderson. He also had firsthand knowledge of Marley’s high-profile relationship with Cindy Breakspeare, the Miss World winner in 1976. Cole saw firsthand the intense public scrutiny that came with Marley’s fame. Years after Marley’s death, he lamented the portrayal of Marley in the recent biopic Bob Marley: One Love, which he said overlooked important truths.

“I was the closest person to him, and I know his history more than anyone else,” he told Anthony Miller in a TVJ interview. “Things we shared, nobody else knows.”

Looking at the clinical and spiritual connection between Marley, Skill Cole, and Haile Selassie, Vassell G. O’Gilvie, psychotherapist at the Hudson Valley Dynamic Counseling in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said, “Marley, all his life, was a Rastafarian who echoed the relationship with His Majesty. In layman’s terms, that means he saw him as divine. That belief led to all the great music that followed the freedom of the black man, the freedom of Africa, and all other races.”

Bob embraced the Christian faith on November 4, 1980, when he was baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church by Abuna Yesehaq, an archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

“Bob became a follower of His Imperial Majesty, worshiping and accepting Christ,” O’Gilvie reminded.

‘Skill’ Cole’s death marked the end of an era in Jamaica. Marley and Cole commanded the world’s attention, together embodying the pride and resilience of a nation seeking to find its rhythm.

As one of Jamaica’s most gifted footballers, Skill Cole helped elevate the sport locally and internationally, and his role as Bob Marley’s manager placed him at the heart of a global cultural revolution that fused music, sport, and identity.

“My maternal grandfather’s surname is actually ‘Cole.’ Maybe I need to do a deep dive into the family tree… One never knows?” Grant mused.

“Allan ‘Skill’ Cole is a case study of a life well lived. He would sometimes lament the fact that his ‘bredrin’ Bob Marley (OM) was not physically around to finally see ‘the freedom of Rastafari.’ Rest well, mi general, rest well,” Grant concluded.

Skill Cole died on September 9 in Kingston.